Drones such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used for various civilian and military missions. The use of drones are attractive when the operations are routine—search, rescue, and surveillance—such as border patrol, scouting for moving vehicles in remote areas, or when the mission poses a threat to human life, common in various military situations, or those encountered by law enforcement in the context of narcotics management and drug enforcement operations. Small drones are already being used for high speed road chases with local law enforcements, the platform is already used to chase and capture suspects in many states in the U.S. (Mini, Micro and Swarming Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Baseline Study, by Patrick Miller, Library of Congress, November 2006).
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal mentions the Pentagon's plans “to expand its global network of drones and special-operations bases in a fundamental realignment meant to project US power” (The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, Page 1). The article goes on to describe the increasing importance of Combat Air Patrols (CAPs) commonly consisting of four US Drone Aircrafts such as the MQ-9 Reaper, dedicated to 24-hour 7-day-a-week presence in the sky and managed by a single pilot. Controlling individual drones within a CAP and similar operations in an autonomous fashion whereby routine tasks do not require human supervision is needed.